Bills coach Doug Marrone acknowledged that to WGR 550 in Buffalo on Friday but maintained his stance that Manuel's injuries are more of a matter of bad luck than durability.

"It's very difficult when your quarterback has had three injuries within a year to go out there and defend him," Marrone said. "But the way I look at it is, I don't believe so."

Manuel sprained his left knee in Sunday's win over the Jaguars, the second time that he's experienced swelling in that knee since the preseason. He also sprained his right knee on a tackle in a Week 5 loss to the Browns.

"When you look at the injuries and how they've occurred, it's really been ... outside of the Cleveland one, and Cleveland, I think it's very easy for us to see, he took a shot right on it. But the other two, when you talk about Minnesota in the preseason and this last one, you're looking and you can see it, and you're like 'Wow,' the position of him and the position of somebody else, and it's not a surgical-type procedure that you need to correct. So what we'll do in the offseason is we'll strengthen those things, do different things to get him ready, and I don't forsee it being a problem," Marrone said.

Marrone said earlier this week that he would not consider "shutting down" Manuel for the remainder of the season and reiterated his reasoning for that Friday.

"No absolutely not, and the reason why I say that and before I said and I do believe this, as many reps as you can get is important. Game experience is one of the most important things that you need and I believe in putting him in there," he said. "The same thing when somebody asked 'Do you ever think of taking him out if he's not playing well?' No, we're putting him in there and we're going to see exactly what we have as we go through an evaluation as we do with everyone."